Six victims of child sexual abuse have been identified and removed from harm as a result of the 12th Victim Identification Taskforce organized by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3).
Between 8 and 19 May, over 30 victim identification specialists from across the world joined forces at Europol’s headquarters and online to identify victims and offenders depicted in child sexual abuse material.
These specialists combed through over 460 sets of images and video files depicting unknown victims of child sexual abuse, some as young as a few days old. They were supported by Europol specialists and intelligence analysts in the field of combating the sexual exploitation of children.
These efforts have led to six children being identified and rescued from abuse, and one offender being arrested.
In addition, the likely country of production of child sexual abuse material has been narrowed down to 236 instances, with investigations now ongoing at the national level to identify further victims.
The following countries and took part in this edition of the VIDTF: Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA (HSI).
